Why I like the new Los Angeles Clippers logo, even if I'm the only one
This article is more than 8 years oldJonah SachsFans may be snickering, but Jonah Sachs argues big brands like McDonald’s and Sears could learn a thing or two from the basketball team’s gutsy rebrand
Steve Ballmer, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, recently appeared on Conan to reveal the team’s new logo and uniform. Almost immediately, people rushed to criticize the new look. The boos were unrestrained on Twitter, and a Los Angeles Times poll put the new logo’s approval rating at just 20%.
It’s been a very public rejection of a corporate rebrand. But other business leaders looking to draw lessons would do well to let the dust settle first. While the fans are snickering, I’m confident the Clippers and the NBA are going to have the last laugh.
The design choices may not be perfect, but the moment Ballmer chose to announce the rebrand is. That, in the long run, will prove to be the key to its success. The Clippers went a long way towards fixing their organization first before trying to fix their image. That takes guts and that’s why they’re ultimately going to reap the rewards.
Typically, we see broken companies roll out a new corporate image as a superficial attempt to paper over deep flaws in their product and culture. See, for example, Sears’ too little, too late attempt to transform its business model. Or McDonald’s current rebranding effort, which is attempting to improve the troubled fast food chain’s image. Despite McDonald’s efforts, the market and customers remain skeptical of an institution many see as fundamentally out of step with today’s culture and values: global sales fell for the 12th month straight in June. A rebrand will never fix these basic problems. The order is all wrong and billions of dollars are being wasted.
The Clippers and the NBA understood that image follows authenticity, not the other way around. Just a year ago, the team was drowning under decades of awful basketball and a headline-grabbing racial scandal. Donald Sterling, who owned the team for three decades, was accused of underinvestment and had a reputation for disdaining his fans and his players. And then, thanks to a few sensational recordings leaked to TMZ, the world found out he also held deep disdain for African Americans.
The Clippers became the poster child for businesses that are cynically run for profit and devoid of respect for its key stakeholders – most of the players, the coach and many of the fans are African American. Of course, the Clippers weren’t unique in their blindness to what happens when you embrace profit over people. What was unique was how radically the team, the public and the NBA responded.
As Sterling’s remarks went public, things could have gone two ways. A typical corporate response would have been a PR blitz, some vague promises for change and then a rebrand to make it all go away.
But the team took a very different path. First, the employees – the players themselves – drove a radical step toward authenticity: they covered the logo on their jerseys as they walked onto the court. This, and an outcry on social media across the country, led to the next bold step. Commissioner Adam Silver imposed an unprecedented lifetime ban on Sterling, essentially forcing him to sell the team.
Finally, the team found a new owner in Ballmer, who came in with a vow to change the culture to one of openness, respect and accountability. He has worked hard to deliver on this promise and he appears, by many accounts, to be succeeding.
The new look, imperfect as it may be technically, is a capstone of real change, not a marketing gimmick. The fact that fans are debating the design – while nobody is talking about what, just a year ago, was the rotten core of the organization – is in itself a triumph for the brand. Clippers fans can now wear their team’s new colors with pride.
The Clippers have entered a new era, through many difficult steps of change. Unlike McDonald’s, Sears and countless others, they’ve earned this rebrand and they’ll reap the benefits.
This is the lesson that business leaders can take from the Clippers’ saga. Businesses tend to reach for a rebrand when things are going off the rails, when something is fundamentally wrong with their place in the market, within their products or culture. But they should execute their rebrands once they’ve authentically solved these problems, or at least made real and lasting progress toward their solution.
So yes, the logo may look very similar to NBA Live ‘16, as many have pointed out. And yes, the claim by RPA, the branding firm that created it, that the brand is based on LA not as a place but as a concept has left many sports fans scratching their heads.
But the new Clippers brand is a celebration of a ship courageously steered through treacherous waters to new life. Not many brands have survived this journey. And no company that needs to take it should attempt a rebrand before the journey has begun.
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